Beam-head protector.



Patented May 23,1916.

.LZE'ON'ARID JOHNSON, OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

BEAM-HEAD PROTECTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 23, 1916.

Application filed November 13, 1915. Serial No. 61,391.

I! b all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LEONARD JoHNsoN, citizen of the United States, residing at New Bedford, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Beam-Head Protectors, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

As at present constructed, the beam heads of a beam, which confine upon the beam, the windings of yarn to be used as in a slasher or a twister, are each made of iron cast in the form of a circular disk, say 1-} ft. in diameter, and of an inch thick; there being integral radial strengthening ribs, and, upon the circumference of the disk, a groove 1} an inch wide, for the reception of a weighted friction rope used to retard the unwinding of the yarn from the beam, as when the beam is in its operative position in any suitable machine. While these heads are considered the best now made, they are open to one very serious objection, namely their likelihood to breakage, as while in railroad or steamship transit. Obviously were a beam dropped out of a freight car, or off of a truck so that the beam head struck a point of its circumference, for example, upon a concrete platform, or the brittle cast iron beam heads dragged or pushed over an uneven surface, as the planking of a dock, the heads would very likely break. In fact, this breakage is so frequent that the railroad and the steamboat companies demur to accepting as freight, unprotected beams, and to paying damages flowing from the breakage; and say that the beam heads are not sufficiently protected by the shippers. Various expedients have been tried to overcome these objections, such as wrapping the exposed edges of the heads with sacking; crating the beams in wooden frames; but they were unsuccessful; costly in labor and wasteful in material. Further, if the heads were broken enough to free and entangle the adjacent end windings of the yarn, the beams would be rejected and returned by the purchasers; the yarn, perhaps irreparably damaged, and the beams absolutely demanding new heads. In short, yarn mills and makers of yarn are subjected to very substantial losses arising from breakage of the yarn beam heads.

Now the objects of my invention are to provide a simple, serviceable, and cheap protector that may be removably secured to the edges of the beam heads, exposed to the various shocks arising in handling, as in transit; and that will receive any of the above mentioned shocks, and tend to distribute it over an extended surface of the head.

In the drawings illustrating the principle'of my invention and the best mode now known to me of embodying this same in operative structure, Figure l is an elevation of a beam provided with my-invention; the dotted lines representing the outside windings of yarn. Fig. 2 represents a beam with one head protected by my invention, and the other not so protected; the protected head appearing either to have just struck a supporting surface, in the act of falling; or to be drawn or pushed along, say a floor, assumed to be more or less uneven. Fig. 3 is an end view of what is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of means for locking the ends of my protecting ring together. Fig. 5 shows in cross section on line 5-5 Fig. 3, an enlarged fragment of an ordinary beam head adapted to receive in its grooved circumference the ring depicted in Fig. 4;.

A beam head, Fig. 1 with which my invention is designed to be used, comprises the usual gudgeon or arbor A of solid iron or piping, beam heads B B and barrel C upon which the yarn threads D are wound, and where they are confined between the heads B B.

Each head B, B, Figs. 2, 3, and 5, is a thin circular cast iron disk, E, Fig. 5, braced with integral radial ribs, F, and having a circumferential rim portion G provided with a groove H to receive, and frictionally engage when the beam is mounted as in a proper machine, a weighted rope. not shown, to control the unwinding of the yarn from the barrel of the beam.

A piece of solid iron, 1, Fig. 4, or of piping having two ears, 2, 2, one at each end. conforms to the general shape of the circumferential groove H in the head, but in length is slightly less than the circumference of the head, so that the ring shaped piece may be sprung into or out of engagement with the groove; a little more than one half of the exterior curved surface of the ring being exposed outside of the groove. A bolt 3 and nut 4 engage the ears 2 of the ring, and by means of them the ends of the ring may be brought together, and the ring drawn against the sides and bottom of the groove, with the desired tension to rigidly fix the ring to the head; or the ends may be separated to allow the removal of the ring from the head.

The operation of my invention will now be plain.

To prepare a beam full of yarn for shipment, the ring 1 is sprung into each friction groove H, the bolt 3 passed through the ears and the nut l tightened up; the ring becomes rigidly bound to the circumference of the head; and the exposed curved surfaces of the ring are positioned to receive all. shocks incident to handling the beam in shipment.

Any shock resulting from dropping or hauling a beam head upon or along a supporting surface X, as in Fig. 2, would be received by the point of shock 5 on the ring, and be distributed from it by the ring over an increased area of the cast iron head, suf ficient to dissipate the breaking effect of the shock, and thus to do away with the breakage heretofore experienced, and the consequent money losses already pointed-out.

Upon the arrival of a beam at its destination, the ring protectors are removed from their respective grooves, either of which, when the beam is placed in its ma chine, receives its accustomed friction rope.

When the beam is emptied of its yarn, its protecting rings are again fixed in place in the grooves in the beamheads, and the empty beam may be returned,- as by freight, to the yarn mill with safety.

In fine, broadly speaking, any invention resides in protecting means removably secured to the exposed circumferential edge of the beam head, to dissipate the disastrous effects of the shocks received by the heads in transit.

Desiring to protect my invention in the broadest manner legally possible, what I claim is a The combination of a cast iron beamhead of a warp-beam, and a divided metal-. lic ring having its exterior surface curved convexly in cross section, and removably mounted upon the circumference of said beam-head; and means whereby said divided ring, and said beam-head may be bound together and form one rigid body, easily slidable over uneven surfaces, and unbreakable from shocks received, while the warp-beam is in transit.

In testimony whereof I hereunto 'a-fliX my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

LEONARD JorINsoN,

lVitnesses EDMOND E. BAUDOIN, ROGER W. ALLEN.

(halal of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing theflcommissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C." 

